Last year, Led Zeppelin were honoured by Barack Obama at a ceremony at the White House. Here’s something I missed at the time, but have just discovered via a friend on Facebook.
Following the ceremony there was a concert at the nearby Kennedy Center, which…in addition to Foo Fighters’ cover of ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll’…featured a choir-assisted rendition of ‘Stairway To Heaven’ by Heart’s Nancy and Ann Wilson. The three surviving members of Led Zeppelin were in the audience, as was Obama. Robert Plant gets increasingly emotional as the song progresses.
Somewhat less enraptured by the performance is the President of The United States (POTUS), who gives the dutiful half-smile of someone who really isn’t feeling this, and has quite a lot of other shit to be doing.
You get used to the idea of Robert Plant resisting attempts to romanticise Led Zeppelin’s past (he once described endless reunion talk as a “pain in the pisser”).
There’s something so lovely about seeing a man in his autumn years, being confronted with something he did in his pomp, and being moved to tears of joy.
by Debbie Dot
